The present disclosure relates generally to a railcar distribution system and method for shipping product, and particularly to a distribution system including a railcar with a payload disposed and particularly arranged therein and a method of disposing and arranging the payload. The present disclosure also relates generally to an assemblage of containers, particularly to an assemblage of containers containing reams of paper and supported by a shipping pallet, and more particularly to a railcar distribution system for distribution of the assemblage of containers supported by the shipping pallet. The present disclosure further relates generally to an assemblage of and method of assembling reams of paper, particularly to an assemblage of and method of assembling reams of paper on a pallet, and more particularly to a railcar distribution system for distribution of the assemblage of reams of paper on the pallet.
High volume transportation of product such as communications papers over land may be accomplished by way of tractor trailer or railcar for example, with a railcar distribution system being most beneficial due to economies of scale. However, the dynamics of a railcar in transit presents a unique set of problems, such as sway and rocking of the railcar and payload as the railcar travels over the rails. To remedy possible shifts in a payload, railcars today are packed with dunnage to secure the payload against an interior surface of the railcar. Without this dunnage, shifting of the payload could possibly change the center of gravity of the railcar during transit, which could make the railcar unstable. Another transportation issue that arises with existing payloads in railcars relates to the degree of underhang of the assemblage of product stacked on a shipping pallet. The more the underhang, the more the likelihood of product shifting during transit. To remedy this situation, dunnage may be used when stacking and wrapping the assemblage of product on each pallet. With both of the above noted scenarios, dunnage is used, which is suitable for its intended purposes, but adds undesirable waste and cost, which is calculated not only by the weight of dunnage used, but also by the cost of producing the dunnage and then disposing of it when the product arrives at its desired destination.
Regarding the assemblage of containers for distribution by railcar, historically the communications papers industry has used 47-inch×35½-inch (47×35½) block or stringer pallets as the primary shipping platforms for cut-size paper. The most common packaging configuration used by the paper industry is the 8.5″×11″ sheet size with 500 sheets per ream and 10 reams per carton with the reams configured in two 5-ream stacks side by side. The block or stringer pallet size accommodates an 8-carton layer footprint for product that fit almost perfectly to the pallet area dimensions with minimal under-hang or over-hang of the cartons relative to the pallet. The stability of the perfect cube of product on the pallet allows the 40 carton pallet configuration (5 layers of the 8 carton footprint) to be safely stacked 3 or 4 pallets high in warehouses and easily accommodated shipment in truck and rail cars with minimal load shifting and minimal bracing to prevent product damage during transit. Over the past 20 years as cut size paper sales migrated into retail distribution channels, these customers required the use of a different pallet size, the 48-inch×40-inch GMA (Grocery Manufacturers of America) design to fit in the standard rack stacking systems routinely used for storage of all products in this industry. For operational ease, in the paper industry the same identical standard carton footprints patterns used on the block and stringer pallets were simply transferred and used routinely on the GMA pallet. In the case of the most common product packaging configuration of cut size product (the 8.5″×11″, 10 ream carton), the standard 8-case layer pallet pattern configuration has usually been adopted. Because this pallet size is now larger than the footprint of the traditional 8-case layer pattern, it creates an under-hang situation of carton footprint relative to the pallet. When attempting to stack the pallets in storage without racks, the upper pallets are no longer supported to the edge of the pallet by the cartons in the lower pallet cube units, creating a less stable stacking unit. Also, during shipment the under-hang of the product on the pallet increases the opportunity for the product damage to occur due to carton shifting in the space that now exists between the carton unit blocks on the pallet, even when the pallets are touching in the load pattern.
To compensate for stacking instability and product damage, material handlers typically limit the heights at which the unit loads are stored to three unit loads per stack. However, in most cases the third unit load is pyramided, that is, it is positioned such that it straddles two side-by-side unit loads. By pyramiding, material handlers are able to store unit loads three high, but they lose ⅓ of a floor spot for every pyramided unit.
Also, to gain storage density and to make pyramiding more practical, material handlers must concentrate like SKUs in one area. This affects operational efficiency in that block storage limits the material handlers' ability to slot SKUs according to the velocity at which they flow in and out of the warehouse. This leads to longer travel distances, which in turn, adds cost by reducing efficiency and increasing truck maintenance and fuel costs.
Regarding distribution by railcar using pallets, wooden pallets are highly utilized for transporting many types of product, which may then be stored at the receiving site for future processing, unloaded at the receiving site for display and/or storage in an alternative manner, or placed on a suitable shelf as-received for end-user viewing and purchase. With respect to transportation from the point-of-production to the point-of-sale of paper product useful for photocopying, printing, or the like, the paper is typically stacked in reams that are individually wrapped in a suitable film material that envelopes each ream, and then placed in suitably sized cardboard boxes for loading on a pallet via an automated palletizer. The cardboard boxes provide protection for the reams of paper during transportation and also provide increased rigidity to the stacked arrangement on a pallet. For 8.5-inch by 11-inch paper stacked in a cardboard box, a double stacked carton of reams has a footprint dimension of about 17.75-inches by 11.75-inches, which must then be placed on an industry standard shipping pallet, such as a GMA (Grocery Manufacturers of America) pallet having nominal dimensions of 40-inches by 48-inches. Due to the rigidity provided by the cardboard boxes, the boxed reams of paper are generally stacked in column form, which is suitable for some forms of transportation. The cardboard boxes, however, are typically only used for shipping and are generally discarded at the receiving site, and the extra thickness of the cardboard boxes adds to the overall size of the reams of paper that are to be palletized. As such, the cardboard boxes are seen to add waste to the shipping process and to interfere in optimizing the packing of a plurality of layers of reams of paper on an industry standard sized pallet. On the other hand, transporting a plurality of layers of reams of paper absent cardboard boxes may yield unstable pallets that are unsuitable for long-distance transportation. Accordingly, there is a need in the art for palletizing a plurality of layers of reams of paper in a more ecologically friendly manner that is also suitable for stable long distance transportation.
In view of the forgoing, it would be desirable to provide improvements in the art of product transportation and distribution that is more economical and offers a “green” solution to the use of dunnage.
This background information is provided to reveal information believed by the applicant to be of possible relevance to the present invention. No admission is necessarily intended, nor should be construed, that any of the preceding information constitutes prior art against the present invention.